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1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to kitchen appliances having an openable front door, and more particularly to a sensorially perceivable hazard-warning device advising persons standing and working nearby the kitchen appliance that the front door is open and represents an injury inducing obstruction.
2. Description of Related Art
Kitchen appliances such as dishwashers and ovens have front doors which are openable by a pivotally downward and outward movement so that the open front door comes to rest in a generally horizontal orientation above the floor. The typical height of these open front doors is in the vicinity of the shin or lower leg of a typical adult person, e.g. in the range of 8xe2x80x3 to 12xe2x80x3 in height.
When these front doors are in the open position and being as low in relation to the floor as they typically are, a person working in the kitchen about the appliances either loading or unloading food from an oven or dishes from a dishwasher, can easily lose track or awareness of such open front doors. In these circumstances, the likelihood of running a lower leg or shin into or hitting one of the margins of the front door is greatly increased.
Applicant is a medical doctor specializing in dermatological care and routinely treats patients who have injured a shin or lower leg having inadvertently struck the open front door of a dishwasher or oven. More typically, dishwasher-related injuries are involved because the front door of a typical dishwasher is somewhat lower to the floor than the front door of a typical oven.
Applicant has taken an informal poll of approximately 1000 patients which have visited his office for their general skin care. Of those 1000 patients, over half have sustained leg trauma of which about 45% have incurred a leg injury causing skin damage or bruising and/or of sufficient severity to require professional medical attention. One such patient developed cutaneous cancer within two weeks of incurring such an injury which required surgery for removal of the cancerous tissue and an extended period of follow-up care and healing.
There appears to be no significant prior art which has, in any way, addressed this safety issue regarding open front doors of kitchen appliances such as dishwashers and ovens. An appliance door alarm apparatus invented by Thompson and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,643 teaches an audible or visual alarm which is actuated upon leaving the front door to the appliance open longer than a preselected time period. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,884, Griffith teaches a control system for an appliance indicator light for timing the amount of time the appliance front door is open after completion of the operational cycle of the appliance.
Prior to my U.S. Pat. No. 6,295,004, no patented or unpatented devices known to applicant addressed the issue of trying to avoid lower leg and shin injury caused by impact with the open front door of a kitchen appliance. The ""004 patent teaches such a device both in aftermarket and original manufacture form, which gives persons standing and moving about the kitchen in the vicinity of an open door of an appliance a visual cue of the potential hazard of accidental impact with the open front door. The present invention greatly expands that inventive concept in utilizing the other human sensory attributes of hearing and touch or felt warning devices.
This invention is directed to a pre-injury contact warning device for a front door of an automatic dishwasher or oven, the front door being openable to a generally horizontal very low position above the floor. In one embodiment, the device includes a housing attachable to a surface of the front door. A warning signal emitter sensorially perceptible by a person receives electric power from a miniature storage battery mounted within the housing. An angle-sensitive switch mounted in the housing is operably interconnected between the warning signal emitter and the storage battery. The switch is open and the warning signal emitter off when the front door is closed, while the switch is closed and the warning emitter on when the front door is open. The warning signal emitter, when on, is sufficiently sensorially perceivable to warn or alert the person nearby the dishwasher that the front door is open and to be avoided. Other embodiments are provided which are operatively dependent upon other forms of sensory perception, e.g. sound and touch or feel. A proximity sensor is also provided to serve as a second stage of arming the device before audible or viewable indicia is emitted.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a visible hazard warning device which provides a sensorially perceivable pre-contact warning which advises persons on foot working in the vicinity of the appliance that the front door is open and that it represents an accident hazard to lower legs.
It is another object of this invention to provide a warning light device attachable to the openable front door of a kitchen appliance such as a dishwasher or oven which is activated upon opening of the front door and then fully armed by activation of a proximity sensor to provide a sensorially perceivable cue to those working and moving about in the vicinity of the appliance that the front door is open and represents an injury hazard to shins and lower legs.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a perceivable cue to those working and moving about on foot in proximity to a kitchen appliance when the front door of the appliance is in an open position well below normal eye level of those persons which otherwise might be potentially injured by impact of the lower leg with a side or end margin of the open front door.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a protective bumper along the door margins of appliances to reduce injury to the lower leg upon accidental contact.
It is yet another object to provide the above invention in either appliances with openable front doors at the time of manufacture or as an aftermarket device attachable to an appropriate surface of the existing appliance.